Not As One Beating the Air(3)

**[Speaker 1]** Church fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God desires the godly home. These are words of salvation and instruction in righteousness with Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. **[Speaker 2]** (Singing) He can never, never fail. He can never, never fail. Jesus is the same forever. He can never, never fail. He can never, never fail. He can never, never fail. Jesus is the same forever. Oh, he can never, never fail. He can never, never fail. He can never, never fail. Jesus is the same forever. Oh, Jesus never, never fail. He will never, never fail. He can never, never fail. Jesus is the same forever. (Praying) Almighty God, to you be glory. To you be honor. To you be praise. To you be adoration. We worship you, our Father. We magnify your holy name. We give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you adoration. Our Father, we are really, really grateful. Thank you for today. Thank you, oh God, for the first Monday in the month of June. We bless you for how it has been since January. We bless your holy name. We receive the new month from your hand with thanksgiving. We say, Lord our God, the month will not swallow us. The month will not snatch our souls in the name of Jesus Christ. All our going forth in the month is blessed. All our coming in in the month is blessed. Your good hand will be upon us for good. And you will preserve us from evil. Evil will not grip us in any way in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you for our brethren, our brethren who are in Ibadan. Our brethren who are in Akure. Give us grace to stay here, Lord, as we fellowship together this evening. Lord, we pray that you will meet us all at the point of our needs in the name of Jesus. Lord, you will instruct our hearts. Lord, you will do us good in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. We thank our God again for this time as we try to finally see how we will conclude on "Not as one beating the air." "Not as one beating the air." Not as one beating the air as we try to conclude on it today, hopefully, trusting the Lord. We should be able to conclude that topic today. Not as one beating the air. We have established what that is in the last two weeks. And last week was a time of prayer. So today I want to proceed from where I left it last week. I want to proceed from where I left it last week so that we can conclude in the spirit of fellowship. Last week I took us to 2 Timothy 4. We are looking at the life of Apostle Paul, how that elder concluded his own race. How that elder concluded his own race. And so we look at that is 2 Timothy 4:7. I will read from verse 5 like I did last week. It says, "But you, be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. But as for you, be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." Now to verse 6 where we concluded last week. It says, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." And as we try to conclude on this our topic, "Not as one beating the air," a matter that was raised by the same Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9, the concluding verses of that chapter. Apostle Paul was saying something very important here. He said, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." And I want you to notice that he was saying this against the background of something. He was saying this against the background of what he was raising with a son in the Lord in that chapter 4 from verse 1. He was speaking to Timothy and he said, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." You see, what I'm trying to make you see about this verse where I read verse 5, this chapter of 2 Timothy, last week I read verse 5 to 7. Now I want to expand the remaining of these verses, vis-a-vis the topic "Not as one beating the air." Now the first thing I want you to see about the matter that the Scripture is raising in this place is that verse 1 opens with a reality that what the apostle was saying here is actually a charge and it was a solemn charge because it was not just that "I charge you Timothy, do this." No. He said, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." You know what he's saying? Look, I am charging you and I want you to understand that I am charging you by the person, the personality who is going to bring all your work to judgment. I am charging you by the person who owns your work. I am charging you by a God that nothing can be hidden from. I am charging you by a God who understands your motive, who knows your thoughts. Jeremiah 17, the Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it except the Lord? Who can know it except the Lord? And what did he say in that Jeremiah 17? You will notice that in all your work he raised a matter in that Jeremiah 17. Look at what he raised. I am opening the Bible quickly for that point just to call our attention to something. In Jeremiah 17, he said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?" That means the heart of man can be intrinsically wicked. And he is full of all kinds of lies. He is full of all kinds of deceitfulness. Now he said who can know it? Now go to verse 10 of chapter 17. He said, "I the LORD search the heart." Are you seeing something? The reason why the Lord knows the heart is that no matter how we try to play 419 around God, it cannot work. Why? Because he searches the heart. While we can deceive men with the way we present matters and the way we turn around matters, God cannot. He said, "I search the heart, I test the mind." God manifest our minds in different ways, in different ways. Look at how God did this to Abraham. God just wanted to know what was in his mind. God was not interested in the death of Isaac. God was not interested in making him for sacrifice. What did he tell him? "Go and kill him." What did God want to see? The mind. He wanted to test the mind. And he got it. When that man got to where he took the knife and was to kill the boy, what did God say? He said, "Now I know that you fear me." Let me tell you, in different ways, God tests our minds. God tests our minds. I was telling a group of students, you might have read very well, very well. And then you enter the examination hall, you are about to write. God will just send one of the angels, maybe Gabriel, I don't know which of them. Just touch the head of that fellow, my son. And for the next 15 minutes, he won't remember anything. God wants just to test to see what you will do. And during that 15 minutes, you have called Baptist, you have called Bimbola, you have called Pius to your rescue. God has only seen that as far as your own life is concerned, you would rather compromise God in the face of conflicting interests. But if God sees that in that 15 minutes, you try to remember, you try, you could not. And then you just waited, waiting on God for help. And after 15 minutes went and nothing, you exit waiting. God said, "Okay, now I know that this one fears me." So look, I'm telling you, God tests our minds. I want you to understand the background against which Paul was speaking in 2 Timothy 4:1. When he said, "I charge you by God and by the Lord Jesus Christ who is going to judge the living and the dead." I want you to understand the background. He said to Timothy understand that look, you, Timothy, I want to charge you and this charge that I am giving you, I'm charging you by God. That is, I'm calling God to witness to this matter. I'm calling God who eventually will know all your thoughts, all your mind, what you are doing, whether you are faithful to this course or you are not faithful to it, whether you will follow me or you will not follow me. I am charging you by that God. I am charging you by a God who will test your mind. I am charging you by a God who searches your heart. I am charging you by a God even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing. That is, I am charging you by that God who will give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing. It is by that God that I am charging you. That is whether you like to do this thing, whether you like to don't do it, whatever you want to do, you can do. But Timothy understand that anyhow you do it, you will be rewarded accordingly. That's the point. I'm talking about not as one beating the air. Not as one beating the air. And I'm showing that what we read last about how Apostle Paul concluded his own life is coming from a chapter where he was giving a charge to a son in the Lord. Where we can see that the Lord God by the Holy Spirit is giving us a charge, a solemn charge. And he is doing that by this father in the Lord, Apostle Paul, because all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. So we see the Holy Spirit by Apostle Paul charging us as his people, telling us that look, I am charging you. You need to understand that I am charging you by God before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ who is going to judge the living and the dead. I want you to understand the background. "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." What is it? "Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season." Preach the word. "Not as one beating the air" is someone who will not live as one beating the air. What are the bases? What are the bases? is what we are looking at today. What are the bases? If we would not live, what is the basis? What is the basis? The basis for not living as one beating the air, if you will live properly, is to understand that you are serving a God that is coming back to judge you according to your work, whether in secret or in open. You are serving a God that will reward you accordingly. You are serving a God that knows you through and through. A God that at different times, before you finally meet him, you are serving a God that will test your motive, he will test your mind, he will test what you are doing to be sure whether your heart is actually with him or not. He will do different things to test your mind. And I am concluding now. Something I said in one of our messages, maybe about three or four years ago, what crossed to my mind and I want to say, this matter of you are serving a God that will test your, that will test your heart, that will test your mind, that will give every man according to their work and to the fruit of their doing. You remember the three Hebrew boys? When Nebuchadnezzar